Day 2 on Kenai Peninsula we went fishing for King Salmon, Alaska's state fish.  As you can see we hit the jackpot.  In the background is our guide Gary Kernan of AlaskaFishOn.com, the best guide on the Kenai River.   If you go with Gary, you will definitely get a fish on your hook.  More than half the other guides came up empty this day.  We on the other hand caught our limit.  In fact we threw several back.

 

Vacationing in Alaska can be expensive.  You are not going to find accommodations here in July.  Most hotels are over $100 per day, as are the SUV rentals when you include the insurance, which is something I would recommend for everyone (I almost ran into more than one moose).  Pictured is the Mercury Mountaineer we rented from Hertz, which booked at a fantastic savings through Hotwire.  Non-stop tickets from Atlanta to Anchorage with Delta Airlines are only a couple hundred dollars when you book six months in advance.

Gary Kernan furnished us with excellent accommodations through Alaskan Lodging.  They even had a cabin setup to clean and vacuum pack the fish.we caught, and another setup with freezers.  After three days of fishing my son and I packaged up over 70 pounds of Salmon and Halibut filets to overnight back Atlanta. The second day of fishing on the river, we almost came up empty.  Gary was double booked that day, so he pushed us off on another guide, who had industry sponsors.  Luckily Gary's group all caught their limit before 4 PM, so we were able to hook up with him before the day was over.  In just thirty minutes he was able to take me to a hole where I caught this small king salmon, which make the wait see worth while.

The second day of fishing on the river, we almost came up empty.  Gary was double booked that day, so he pushed us off on another guide, who had industry sponsors.  Luckily Gary's group all caught their limit before 4 PM, so we were able to hook up with him before the day was over.  In just thirty minutes he was able to take me to a hole where I caught this small king salmon, which make the long wait seem entirely worth while.